[OLPC-Chicago] OLPC-Chicago Digest, Vol 8, Issue 1

Sat Mar 1 16:00:56 EST 2008

///Any pointers towards cheap/free/donated office
space - even as a temporary summer locale so we can
get operations underway while figuring out
whether/where/how to do a longer-term lease - would be
very helpful, if anyone on this list has leads or
suggestions.///

The question I'm about to ask, isn't a devil's
advocate/pick fight question.  It's motivated by total
ignorance:

What kind of office space does ChicagOlpc (my vote for
a name) need?

Is it a place open during regular business hours where
any Xo owner can walk in looking for guidance and
assistance?  Is it a place where any people wanting to
learn more about OLPC (which is more than just the XO)
can call to have questions answered, drop in with out
an appointment for a possible meeting or introduction
to the program?

Does it need a place to store items?  Xo's?  Paper? 
Does it need a conference room? A break room?

I don't know, so I'm just asking.

Recently I received a solicitation for an office
environment where you essentially pay 'to show up',
and the building provides an office and staff.  This
staff also works for everyone else.  So you come to a
nice office, and go about your business, and the
building does everything else.  I didn't look into
costs because I don't need anything like that.  Does
ChicagOlpc?

The last time I met with Larry was at his kitchen
table over birthday cake.  This was fine by me, but in
no way "professional".  I suspect the grassroots
element will always involve individuals using the
resources available and no one minding that fact. 
However, OLPC may have a particular way it wants to
present itself and that can influence what this office
is suppose to look like. If OLPC has a "packaged
look", or minimum requirements, knowing these needs
would help in developing an "office hunt."

On the subject of FREE, when I met with Adam Holt we
discussed OLPC at the Round House, the local brewery
in Aurora.  He mentioned another Brewery I believe
near Boston volunteered to let OLPC meet-ups happen on
their premises.  Not always family friendly, but FREE.

If ChicagOlpc only needs a monthly meet up, something
as simple as a Panera Bread could work where Wi-Fi is
free and a private room is only a reservation away. 
This may be the simplest summer solution.  

Finally, on the matter of leases.  Most leases are
written in the favor of the landlord and there is
rarely wiggle room for a tenant to disagree with the
terms of the contract.  My wife's best friend is a
lawyer and I'm sure I could get her to read over a
lease before it is signed, but I suspect any good
lease will involve a senario where you sign or you
don't sign.

The terms of a lease are typically as follows, "your
responsible for everything, any modifications made
become the landlords property unless you return it to
way it came, the place must be returned the way it
came or better.  Pay your rent on time or else."  It
may sound sarcastic, but it's more or less true.  Both
the city and state have laws in place to protect both
landlord and tenant, so the actual lease will likely
be less of an issue than it may seem.  Finding a
location and a price point will be more challenging
that the details of the lease.  Just my opinion.

In fact, all of this is just "Material to Consider",

Chuck 'retrofit' Tuura

--- olpc-chicago-request at lists.laptop.org wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. Windy City's OLPC (Rebecca Rubio)
>    2. Re: Windy City's OLPC (Mel Chua)
> 
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:28:40 -0800 (PST)
> From: Rebecca Rubio <tacotaxi26 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [OLPC-Chicago] Windy City's OLPC
> To: olpc-chicago at lists.laptop.org
> Message-ID:
> <638544.91948.qm at web65612.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> I hope this will really be in the City of Chgo not
> suburbs.  I'm in a wheelchair and am good at getting
> around anywhere downtown.
> 
> olpc-chicago-request at lists.laptop.org wrote:  Send
> OLPC-Chicago mailing list submissions to
> olpc-chicago at lists.laptop.org
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web,
> visit
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-chicago
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body
> 'help' to
> olpc-chicago-request at lists.laptop.org
> 
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> olpc-chicago-owner at lists.laptop.org
> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it
> is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of OLPC-Chicago digest..."
> 
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
> 1. Name That Office contest (Mel Chua)
> 
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:37:06 -0500
> From: Mel Chua 
> Subject: [OLPC-Chicago] Name That Office contest
> To: olpc-chicago at lists.laptop.org
> Message-ID: <47C7A812.2010408 at melchua.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1;
> format=flowed
> 
> Yo!
> 
> If you've got a few free minutes to help brainstorm,
> we need a good name 
> for the OLPC Chicago grassroots office coming
> full-time to a Chicago 
> near you (yes, this Chicago) this summer.
> 
>
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Mchua/Braindumps/Chicago_office
> 
> Go! And look for a big announcement/launch around
> the week of March 10 
> with many more details than this teaser contains.
> 
> -Mel
> 
> 
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> 
> End of OLPC-Chicago Digest, Vol 7, Issue 12
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> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:54:36 -0500
> From: Mel Chua <mel at melchua.com>
> Subject: Re: [OLPC-Chicago] Windy City's OLPC
> To: olpc-chicago at lists.laptop.org
> Message-ID: <47C8FDAC.8080600 at melchua.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1;
> format=flowed
> 
> Re: location accessibility to wheelchairs, etc. (and
> people who use 
> public transport)
> 
> We hope it'll be closer to the city as well, but
> it's really dependent 
> on where we can find space that we can afford. Any
> pointers towards 
> cheap/free/donated office space - even as a
> temporary summer locale so 
> we can get operations underway while figuring out
> whether/where/how to 
> do a longer-term lease - would be very helpful, if
> anyone on this list 
> has leads or suggestions.
> 
> (I'll also point out that there's a *lot* of
> Illinois outside the 
> Chicago area, and a lot of great schools and people
> - having 
> /everything/ in the city is a bit more
> location-exclusive than I'd 
> personally like - but that's me.)
> 
> The current default fallback (100% guaranteed to be
> possible) is "the 
> basement of the house all the staff members are
> living in," but that's 
> hardly optimal, because that house is out in the
> suburbs, about an hour 
> away by train.
> 
> One option under serious consideration is not having
> a physical base 
> (outside of the place we're sleeping), but instead
> making an XO Lab In A 
> Van, and having project hackathons and events hosted
> in different 
> locations across IL each time - that's a lot of
> overhead and 
> coordination, but it's possible if the IL OLPC
> community would be 
> willing to help host.
> 
> But again - many things are getting pinned down for
> the office right 
> now, and a lot more information with much less vague
> hand-waving will be 
> forthcoming in the announcement a weekend-and-a-week
> from now.
> 
> In the meantime, folks - we're coming to IL this
> summer for *you*, so 
> what do you want, what would you like to see, what
> would you want a 
> grassroots office space (or roaming van) to do? Want
> us to help you host 
> a hackathon or Jam? A "summer camp" or course on
> electronics, 
> programming, graphic design, curriculum creation,
> translation, 
> wiki-tinkering, Linux, Sugar, Python? Gearing up for
> pilot programs in 
> the fall (what schools? each school needs its own
> dedicated group of 
> support volunteers). Internships? Support for and/or
> work on 
> research/scholarly papers/conferences on
> XO/constructi(vi/ioni)st 
> learning? Approaching local governments? Repairs?
> 
> Note, please, that all these things *can* be done by
> grassroots and 
> university groups (that's you!), right now - my take
> on it is that the 
> role of staff this summer is to help nucleate *your*
> projects, not to 
> sweep everything under our giant umbrella; we don't
> want to be a giant 
> umbrella, but more of a spark that zips from place
> to place, connecting, 
> helping, and catalyzing where we can. We'll be here
> as 
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